[TR24][OF] Barbra Streisand - The Way We Were - 1974/2002 (Pop, Ballad, Vocal)

"The Way We Were" is the fifteenth studio album recorded by American vocalist Barbra Streisand. It was released on January 1, 1974 by Columbia Records. The record was compiled immediately following the commercial success of lead single "The Way We Were". A majority of the material on the album was meant for the singer's unreleased project The Singer while other songs included were previously released in prior years. Following the distribution of the soundtrack for the 1973 film of the same name, Columbia added a caption to Streisand's LP (Featuring the Hit Single "The Way We Were" and "All in Love Is Fair") in order to minimize confusion between the two albums. Covering a wide array of themes and topics, Streisand sings about recovering relationships, social awareness, and love in general. Like the majority of Streisand's catalog, The Way We Were was described as a contemporary pop album blended with her signature vocal style. In terms of production, she heavily worked with Tommy LiPuma and Wally Gold, while Marty Paich contributed to the title track. The lead single ("The Way We Were") was released on September 27, 1973 and became a chart topper in both the United States and Canada. It was also the top-selling single in the former country in 1974. The second and final single, "All in Love Is Fair", was released in March 1974 and also charted in the two aforementioned countries. The album received generally favorable reviews from music critics, who praised Streisand's vocals and found the record capable of being extremely successful. However, some critics felt the album was not carefully planned out and Streisand was acting out the tracks rather than actually singing them. Commercially, The Way We Were topped the Billboard 200 in the United States and reached the top ten on album charts in Australia and Canada. It also entered the charts in Japan and the United Kingdom. Due to strong sales, it has since been certified 2× Platinum in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). In the United States, the album debuted at #97 on the Billboard 200 chart for the week ending February 16, 1974, and by February 26, had already sold 500,000 copies and was certified Gold. The following week it rose to #39, and on March 16 of the same year, it reached the top position. It became Streisand's second #1 and seventh top five album, with the other number-one being People (1964). The Way We Were spent two weeks at the highest position before falling to #4 on March 30. It continued dropping on the charts but managed to stay within the top 10 of the list for a total of six weeks. The Recording Industry Association of America changed its certification status to Platinum for shipments upwards of 1,000,000 sales, and again on September 23, 1998, The Way We Were was certified for selling over 2,000,000 copies
Though usually referred to as The Way We Were, the unwieldy full title of this album is "Barbra Streisand Featuring the Hit Single The Way We Were and All in Love Is Fair," an important distinction because it was released simultaneously with the original soundtrack album for the film The Way We Were (Columbia 32830), which also contained a Streisand recording of the title song, along with the film score composed by Marvin Hamlisch. This album was thrown together quickly after that song took off as a single (in a recording different from the one in the film) in the wake of the success of the movie. In addition to the single and the Stevie Wonder song that also features in its title, the album contained a grab-bag of stray tracks dating back as far as seven years and coming from Streisand's fourth TV special, The Belle of 14th Street and an unfinished album project called "The Singer" largely made up of ballads written by Alan and Marilyn Bergman and Michel Legrand. The combined commercial impact of the film and the single propelled this album to the top of the charts.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbra_Streisand
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Стрейзанд,_Барбра